Current ideas and research in psychology, neuroscience, and neurology

websites

I’ve started an online structural neuroimaging guide for users of Mac OS X. The site can be found here. I am just beginning with it so there is not much information there yet but I hope to slowly expand it and make it a good resource for things related to neuroimaging, particularly structural MRI (including diffusion weighted images). My primary interests are with neuroimaging, neuroanatomy, and neuropsychology; I spend the bulk of my research time doing one of my favorite things – dealing with methods of neuroimaging analysis. While my role is not as technical as some of our collaborators, I enjoy the process of processing MRIs. In the process I have learned a great deal about imaging and wanted to put together a series of guides that will allow others, especially students and novices, to conduct their own analyses. There is a lot of very useful information out there but it is not consolidated into any one locale. One thing I plan on doing is consolidating much of the information into one place and making it easy to follow.

Archeologists discovered what may be the oldest human brain. The brain matter is within a skull and is fossilized, or in a similar state. Researchers estimate that the brain dates to around 300 BC. Here’s the link to the BBC story.

I’m quite fascinated by human anatomy, especially neuroanatomy. The human body is amazing; it’s something of a miracle that it develops and works as well and as often as it does. The brain is very complex with up to 100 million neurons (that’s also an estimate of the number of stars in our galaxy) and 100 trillion synapses (connections between neurons)! 100 trillion is an estimate of how many individual cells the entire human body has. We have as many synapses as cells in the entire body. The brain is complex and beautiful. It has symmetry but individuality.

I discovered a website that allows you to watch some surgeries live (or to view archives of past surgeries). OR-Live.com is informational and free. For those interested in neurosurgeries – everything from scoliosis surgery to tumor resection to deep brain stimulation – here is the direct link. Most of the videos are available in Flash format for web-viewing. Many are also available to download as a video podcast. Warning – please don’t watch the videos if you get queasy easily; if you feel queasy while watching one, take a break and do something else for a while.

I hope my readers enjoy this site as much as I have in the past and will continue to in the future.

I know I’m a few days late but Of Two Minds hosted the latest Encephalon. It’s a well-written collection of hot neuroscience geek writing. Although, I don’t understand how somehow the contributors all managed to miss the Douglas Adams connection with this Encephalon. The Paris Hilton thing was quite funny but this could have been THE ULTIMATE Encephalon, providing the answers to life, the universe, and everything. I, unfortunately, have not participated in an Encephalon yet but I’ll get around to it one of these days.

I’m in the process of redesigning the website. It might take me a month or two to complete as this is a very busy semester for me. I will try to keep posts coming but I probably can’t write more than one post per week between classes, research, clinic work, and family responsibilities (I’m the proud parent of two beautiful daughters and the proud spouse of one beautiful wife). Please be patient with the relative paucity of posts. Hopefully the newly redesigned page will be better than this one – that is the point of redesigning after all. I’m working on a Joomla-based site instead of WordPress (I have nothing against WordPress, I just wanted to try something new).

I stumbled across this wonderful anatomy site that focuses on the skull. You can move your mouse over different parts of the skull to highlight their names. You can also mouse over a structure and have the area of the skull highlighted. This is a wonderful study guide if you have to know the parts of the skull.

Today I discovered an interesting site about the brain. From the site: Each currently available topic…takes you to several sub-topics, with 5 levels of organization and your choice of 3 levels of explanation.” You can choose the level at which you want the topics explained – basic to advanced. The site covers the topics: “From the Simple to the Complex,” “Memory and the Brain,” “Pleasure and Pain,” “Emotions and the Brain,” “Evolution and the Brain,” “Body Movement and the Brain,” “The Senses,” “Mental Disorders,” “How the Mind Develops,” “From Thought to Language,” “Sleep and Dreams,” and “The Emergence of Consciousness.” The last two topics have not been posted yet, however.